Kevin has a knack for befriending strangers. When I first met him I found him open, honest, and possessing the dry, subtle humor of an deep thinker. Upon discovering that I was launching the web site Who Calls the Shots, Kevin volunteered to an interview before I could even think of a way to ask him. The responses he gave are inspirational, insightful, and full of advice for the burgeoning filmmaker and documentarian.

Kevin recently finished his second documentary, The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels, and is working on a on-going project about actress Ingrid Pitt. He took time out of promoting Vampira: The Movie to participate in this interview.

As a kid, you used to make movies with an 8mm camera. Did you ever shoot any documentaries?

I think the Super-8 movies I made reflected my childhood a bit, but I also romanticized about early silent filmmaking, partially because my camera had no sound. The first thing I shot starred my best friend and the video game character Pac-Man. I had a small plastic Pac-Mac and, by starting and stopping the camera, stop-motion style, we pretended that Pac-Man was chasing my friend and then finally kills him. That was the first one. I was out of step with the times because I suggested to my friends that we make a silent film with dialogue on title cards. I had a hero, a damsel in distress and a mustache-curling villain. There was no editing, so I would pan over to the title cards and then back to filming. My friends had never seen silent films, so to them I was doing something new.

After several years working in the production department at Troma, you decided to switch gears and focus on documentaries. What motivated this change of direction?

So many people who worked for Lloyd Kaufman over the years wanted to “graduate” from Tromaville and become a carbon-copy, more-commercialized version of Lloyd Kaufman. I didn’t think that I had to go out and make a Troma movie. Or be the next Lloyd Kaufman. I knew if my heart was in the right place I could make a documentary and it would set me apart from what other Troma “graduates” were doing.

In addition to your documentary work, you also work on short scripted films. Do you have a preference for one or the other?

It’s amazing how much the same it is. Alexia Anastasio and I have been been shooting experimental films together. A New York Times reporter took notice of what we were doing and told us how unique it was. I like telling stories and showing something you’d not expect to see. We did an all-female version of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé. I did a zombie morality tale called The Last Days of Rik Mortis that had male nudity in it. Very taboo. I want to bring back the organic theatrical stage feel back to movie-making. I am working on putting together a troupe that will improvise and perform, but the stage they perform on will only exist in cyberspace.

How does your production style differ when you work on scripted films compared to documentaries?

I’ve learned that in making documentaries, the person you interview must answer the same question about three times to get a decent take. This makes it sound a bit scripted, but I like it. With a scripted piece, I like when all the words are spoken exactly but sound improvised, which is the opposite feel.

Lloyd Kaufman, the man behind Troma Entertainment, is a legendary micro-budget producer and director. What is the most important lesson you learned while working with Lloyd?

“You get what you pay for.”

Vampira: The Movie features music by Ari Lehman, a former actor known to many genre fans as the original Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th, and now the leader of the band FIRSTJASON. What tipped you off that Ari would make a good composer for the project?

I got to know Ari through the convention circuit. When we were doing Poultrygeist at Troma, I suggested Ari that he come up with a couple of musical tracks. Ultimately, Troma went another direction, but I became a fan of Ari’s music, which I though would work great with Maila Nurmi’s words. We are both fans of William Burroughs and Laurie Anderson and spoken word. There are so many sides to Ari, not just the deformed one who sprung up from Crystal Lake.

The subjects in your documentaries give you an amazing amount of access to their time and personal lives. You also spend a lot of time befriending your subjects before you even begin filming. How did you gain such unprecedented access to actors such as Maila Nurmi (Vampira), who lived much of her life as a recluse and rarely granted interviews?

Yes, it takes time to do a documentary with someone and a lot of discussion. There was no question that Maila didn’t want to do a project like Vampira: The Movie when I first approached her. There are no “drive-by” interviews. Especially with someone who doesn’t grant interviews and is jaded when it comes to the press because they got burned so many times as Maila had.

Vampira: The Movie features interviews with many of the genres most notorious personalities, many of whom you met while attending various conventions. What kind of responses did you get when you first went started pitching your idea and requesting interviews?

Everyone I approached was more than happy to talk about Vampira. She is an icon. The most gracious of the people I interviewed was Cassandra Peterson aka Elvira. I wanted to give her respect by giving her three minutes to say her peace. Not everyone is happy that I did that, as I have gotten a few emails about it, but I think it was the right decision to have her in it.
Your budget for Vampira: The Movie was extremely low. How did you stretch your dollars to get the most our of your limited funds?

You find ways to economize. If you’re in a city, try to shoot as much as you can during one trip. You do favors and build up relationships with other filmmakers. You work on their movies, they work on yours. Lloyd told me to get ahead by doing “special” favors and on that I have no comment.

Documentary films aren’t traditionally thought of as strong revenue producers. When you set out to make Vampira: The Movie, did you have any financial goals in mind?

All financial goals are out the window from Day One, because you have no idea what you’ll eventually spend to get the movie finished, if it will be finished, or if it’ll ever get distribution or get onto screens. Whatever you budgeted you can triple and whatever you make back may be 10% of that. In the long term, maybe you’ll see a profit. But that not limited to this business. What’s encouraging is that with digital, it’s possible that you can get a movie made on $10,000. But it’s really the goal of getting your art out there for people to see that’s gratifying.

As you sought investment capital for the movie, did you find that people were looking for a traditional revenue return, or did people simply get involved for the love of the project?

You have to say to any potential investor that they acknowledge that they will lose every cent. I worked for a stockbroker for one week. He had a gimmick to illustrate this. He would ask his client to take out his checkbook and write a check for $20,000 to the firm. The client would play along and write the check. The stockbroker would then take the check and tear it up and throw it away. He’d ask, “How does it feel to lose $20,000 in 30 seconds?” If the client showed a great amount of dismay, the stockbroker would tell him that he doesn’t have the stomach to invest in the stock market. Same goes for the movie business. But if anyone wants to write me a check, I promise I won’t tear it up.

How is your collaboration with Alpha New Cinema, your distributor, working out? How much involvement do you have in the distribution process?

Quite a bit. Alpha has been great to me and I speak with my rep on a regular basis of how best to market the movie. The DVD retail business is in a strange place right now. They are asking themselves whether there will be any DVDs sold at all five years from now. What happens when everything is available to download for free?

Vampira: The Movie is Alpha New Cinema’s fastest-selling DVD. What have you done differently that has forced your film to stand out among all the others?

Well the Alpha New Cinema division is fairly new. Alpha has hundreds of classic movies and have built their reputation on that. They are taking steps now to broaden their horizons with new and exclusive content. There are some really good movies out in 2008 from Alpha.

Like many movies, the DVD release of Vampira: The Movie was delayed by a month. What causes the ubiquitous delays that always seem to accompany a DVD release?

In this case we had a mastering issue. They threw about 1,000 copies away. They keep a tight ship when it comes to quality-control.

You spend a lot of time promoting your films, hosting panels, and showing your films at dozens of genre conventions. What affect do you think this has this had on the documentary’s success?

I used to think that the grassroots approach was silly, but it works. It really is like a political campaign. You have to shake a lot of babies and kiss a lot of hands. You have to be known as a filmmaker within your local community, then nationally, then internationally. You can’t skip steps. You need to go out and screen your film to different audiences and get their feedback. You need to know your topic thoroughly and be able to give a 30 minute lecture if you’re called upon to do so. I like to let the fans know that I am accessible and that there is no separation between them and me. I stand behind my product, being my work. It’s important that filmmakers are not confused with computers.

Vampira: The Movie has been shown in such distant places as Finland, South America, and Germany. How difficult was it to orchestrate showings so far from home?

It was very tricky. You can see some of the screenings covered on the extras section of the Vampira: The Movie DVD. When we went to Germany I spoke for ten minutes not realizing that the crowd didn’t speak English. Can you imagine? But the film festivals have been very good with embracing us and inviting us.

Vampira: The Movie recently won a Rondo Award. Did you notice an increase in sales after winning this award?

I am very honored about the award especially being in the company of so many great people and movies that have won it. I guess awards have an impact on sales, but for me I was really excited that the movie got so much support.

The documentary has generated a lot of press in print magazines—especially for a documentary. Was this part of a larger plan or did it come about more organically?

I don’t think you can be Machiavellian when it comes to these things. I certainly never expected to land on the cover of Rue Morgue, nor did I think we’d get international press. I did try to make sure that any package I sent out came with a follow-up phone call or email. Making personal appearances helped us as far as getting us in trade publications and event reviews.

Your comic book tie-in to Vampira: The Movie was completed just before its publisher, Fangoria Comics, closed shop. Had it been published on time, how would the comic have fit into the marketing plan for the movie?

We had an idea to do it as a running serial across a series of Fangoria-branded comics, tieing into the initial DVD release on Alpha. I thought it would be a fun thing like Stan Lee might do. Like when I was growing up, a movie always had a comic book adaptation to go with it. I want to go exciting things that will get fans interested that otherwise we’d never reach.

Your recently completed documentary, The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels, is being released right around the time that Alpha New Cinema is re-releasing Mikels’s films on DVD. Was the timing of your documentary always intended to coincide with the catalog re-release?

No. It’s something we are still discussing. We may have to do a round of film festivals before we release The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels on DVD. Ted’s box set is doing really well for Alpha and they are going to be releasing five or six more of Ted’s movies. Hopefully we can make another box set something special.

You once mentioned that you were filming scenes for a documentary about Ingrid Pitt. What happened to that project?

We are still working on the project. It’s taking some time because I am looking at animators to work on it. I want certain segments have a look and feel of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, but with documentary footage. Ingrid is a Holocaust survivor who went into making horror movies and became a huge sex symbol. It’s an amazing life story, but not something that is easily told. It will get done once we have the right funding in place because animation is very expensive.

You’ve recently shot a few scenes from the other side of the camera as an actor. How does working as an actor compare to your “day job” as a documentary filmmaker?

I’d like to do more roles. I haven’t really been pursuing it, but it’s something that is really fun to do. In Ramzi Abed’s movie In a Spiral State, I play a guy who goes on a date, gets drugged and later gets his organs stolen. I got cast because Ramzi wanted to have other filmmakers play roles. In another movie, I play a paramedic. It’s weird that I never played a zombie as I have been asked several times. Documentaries are completely different, but I think eventually I go the Michael Moore route and be on-screen in my documentaries.

Kevin maintains extensive and frequently updated web sites for each of his projects. Follow the links for more information:

http://www.vampirathemovie.com

http://www.thewildworldoftedvmikels.com

http://www.salomefilm.com

I met Jason Murphy, the film’s director and co-producer, at Megacon in Orlando and found him to be extremely friendly, ambitious, and open to sharing the knowledge he gained while making his movie, the unashamedly titled Zombies Zombies Zombies.

Prior to launching your movie, did you have any experience with Hollywood or the Florida filmmaking community?

Yes. I graduated with a degree in Film Production from Valencia Community College back in 1996 and have worked on many Central Florida productions since. Working on other movies, TV shows, and commercials was a huge help in preparing me for making my own films.

Did producing a low-budget feature cost significantly more than you would have spent on a high-quality short film?

Well, maybe, but that depends on who you are talking to. I personally know people who have spent more on shorts than we spent on Zombies.

Rather than go through the difficult and time-consuming route of securing outside financing, you took a huge risk and self-financed Zombies Zombies Zombies with Tony. How did it affect the production knowing that every dollar was coming out of your own pocket?

I have tried to get outside funding in the past, but have always believed that I would be able to get the investors a profit, or at least their money back. So, if I believe that I will get them the money back, I figured why wouldn’t I be willing to make the investment myself? If I am asking strangers to believe in me, I should be able to believe in myself enough to invest in my own project. Of course, it is a little more stressful writing the checks and using your own credit cards, but it is also easier in a way, because you don’t have anyone else telling you what you can and can’t do.

Of all the ideas you could have developed into a feature, what made you go with ’strippers versus zombies’?

Tony and I have a few other scripts we have written, but we were looking for something to make on a lower budget than the ones we already had. Tony kept throwing out ideas for a zombie movie, but I didn’t really like any of them until we got to ’strippers vs zombies’…which to me was a no-brainer.

Movies that combine gory horror with equal amounts of comedy run the risk turning into a farce. How did you balance the horror elements with the humor?

Hopefully we did a good job on that part…it is hard though. We knew that with a movie about strippers fighting zombies, we couldn’t take anything too seriously.

What was your timetable for pre-production, production, and post? How many shooting days did you have?

Tony wrote the script in about a month, and then we had about a month of pre-production, and we shot for 13 nights. We later added another 2 days for some FX and pickup shots. Tony and I did all the editing, but after shooting, we had to go back to work to pay the bills and could only edit on weekends and free time, so it took us about a year to finish post.

How cooperative was the local Florida filmmaking community? What about state and local government?

There were definitely a lot of people who were willing to help, and then some that weren’t. But in general, we had a great crew, and the police, film commission, and Department of Transportation were all very cooperative.

The unashamedly exploitative subject matter will likely pay off when it comes time for marketing, but did it hinder production in any way? Did the subject produce any unusual responses from the people and organizations you dealt with?

Yes, there were definitely a few people that didn’t want to be associated with a movie about strippers, but those people never took the time to see what we were actually doing…they just assumed it was porn or something…which it is definitely not.

Director of Photography Kenny Beaumont, an instructor at Fullsail film school, brought an entire crew and a truckload of equipment with him on the first day of shooting. How did your collaboration with Kenny come about? What effect did his participation have on keeping costs down?

Kenny is great, and we worked really well together. Kenny was able to get us some of the lights and gear we needed from Full Sail, which definitely saved us some money on production.

Your Special Effects Director, Rick Gonzalez, has a history with horror films that goes back to 1985’s Day of the Dead. How did you hook up with him?

I had worked on some projects that Rick had done FX for in the past, so it was an easy choice to call him for our project.

Your main cast is made up of former FHM, Maxim, and Playboy models. Did you hold casting calls for the lead roles or did you approach specific people? Aside from drop-dead beauty, what were the main factors in your casting decisions?

We did hold castings for the movie, and we definitely spent a lot of time trying to find the right actors for the roles. Tony wrote the role of “Harley” with Hollie Winnard in mind, because we knew her, but most of the other roles were cast from our auditions. I knew some of the girls from my work as a photographer, but we had to see if they could pull off the role. There were definitely plenty of pretty faces we could have chosen, but many of them didn’t stand out with the acting like the ones we cast.

Zombies Zombies Zombies features Tiffany Shepis, a Hollywood scream queen with more than 50 movies to her credit. How did she join your project?

I had originally talked with Tiffany about being a lead role, but she already had a movie scheduled in Italy during our shoot dates. We kind of became friends after that, and when we later added some stuff, we were happy to be able to put her in there.

Many of your cast and crew worked below their regular pay or for experience only. What attracted them to your project and what incentives did you offer them for participation?

A lot of people worked for cheap, and many of the crew even worked for free, but we made sure everyone was having fun. We did our best to keep to our schedule, and we also spent thousands to get full catered meals everyday. I have personally worked on many “hell” shoots, and I never want anyone to feel overworked or unappreciated on my shoots.

Zombies Zombies Zombies won “Best Florida Horror Film” at the 2007 Freak Show Florida, the very first festival you submitted to. What impact has this award had on securing distribution and publicizing the movie?

I don’t think it has had much if any impact on distribution, but it is nice to know that people actually like the movie.

Having finished the final cut of the movie, do you feel that self-financing the movie had any affect on your creative decisions? What advantages did you experience that you may have lost had you used investor financing?

Self-financing gave us complete control over the cut of the movie, which is great! Having someone else tell you what to do isn’t always bad, it just depends on who that person is, and if you agree with what they want you to do. In general, I much prefer having creative freedom over my work, but in this business, that isn’t usually the case.

The budget for the movie has been reported as high as $200,000 to “under $100,000.” How has perception of the movie’s budget affected distribution deals, publicity, and marketing?

In general…for U.S. Distributors, the budget doesn’t matter since you are just getting a percentage of sales. Foreign markets usually pay a flat fee, and they usually use the budget to determine how much they are willing to pay.

You once mentioned that the movie could be retitled to one of the most blatantly exploitative phrases ever—”Crack Whore Zombies”. What made you stick with the more simple title Zombies Zombies Zombies?

While “Crack Whore Zombies” is a fun title that Tony and our friend Zack came up with…most retail stores would never put a movie with that title on the shelf. Ultimately, I felt that people would unfairly cast judgment on the movie based on the title, and it would limit our options on distribution. Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! is still a fun, campy title that captures the tone of the film, yet it doesn’t offend anyone.

Check out the movie’s web site at:
http://www.zombieszombieszombies.com/